Tag Archives: Maker Movement

In grade 7 I took compulsory Home Economics class which taught us basic Sewing and Cooking skills. I was pretty good at it and although much fun I wrote it off because in my mind it wasn’t for Modern girls who wanted to use their Intelligence and have a ‘Career’ or who aspired to be more than just a ‘Housewife’ *rolls eyes*. How wrong I was.

At the time, we were led to believe that ‘girls can do anything’ and trained in ‘girl power’. We weren’t taught to value ‘skills’ because skills were not for the ‘highly educated’ who went to University and studied for years and years and ended up in high powered positions.

Although I don’t disagree with encouraging girls to follow their ambition, what our teachers and career advisers didn’t foresee was the huge cultural and societal shift which has led to the DIY Revolution and the Maker Movement. Independent cafes / restaurants / art galleries, grassroots & community initiates such as urban gardening / food and craft markets, transition towns have burgeoned in the last few years.

If I had been advised then, that the future would be about self-subsistence, conservation, eco-friendly activities, community, creativity, individuality, taking pride in one’s own work, providing an alternative to the big corporates – in that context maybe I would have paid more attention in Home Eco’s.